A GoFundMe campaign to raise money to buy “ladders to get over Trump’s wall” has raised tens of thousands of dollars in response to a similar campaign to crowdfund part of Trump’s proposed border wall.
After a GoFundMe campaign to raise $5 billion for Trump’s border wall went viral, a US Army veteran launched a campaign to buy ladders to get over the wall.
Army veteran Charlotte Clymer of Texas started the campaign as a joke but has raised nearly $80,000 in a single day.
“We saw some folks are raising money for a border wall to keep out our migrant siblings and fellow human beings, who are fleeing violence and persecution and whose tragically-underpaid labor is essential to the U.S. economy,” Clymer wrote. “Seems like a bad idea on countless levels for everyone involved. Maybe we should focus on human rights and creating a community that reflects our supposed values.”
“Should we not reach our goal--or should they (ahem) not reach theirs--all funds raised will go to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) , a Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees,” she wrote. “You see, they’ll never reach their goal, but no matter how much we raise, we’re going to reach ours: Supporting an organization working to help immigrants seeking legal asylum. This GoFundMe isn’t really about ladders at all. It’s about lifting people up.”
Clymer says border wall is “racist”:
"I was really stunned when I heard of the border wall GoFundMe," Clymer told Business Insider. "More than being angry, I was sad at the blatant racism of donating money to a wall that will not be built, a wall that won't work."
"I've really been happy with how this has generated conversation on just the absurdity of the wall in general," she added. "Undocumented folks are not bringing crime or drug smuggling or any of this job-stealing nonsense to our country."
Trumpkin who started wall GoFundMe outed for fake news:
NBC News reported that Brian Kolfage, the Florida vet who started the GoFundMe to fund the wall, previously started a GoFundMe to raise money after Facebook banned his pages for spreading fake news.
“The fundraising page doesn’t mention Kolfage’s most recent business venture, a Facebook page titled Right Wing News and a ring of affiliate sites that frequently trafficked in conspiracy theories,” NBC News reported. “In October, Right Wing News was pulled down by Facebook in a sweep of more than 559 pages that the company said were ‘using fake accounts… to drive traffic to their websites’ or ‘were ad farms using Facebook to mislead people into thinking that they were forums for legitimate political debate.’”
“My personal issues have nothing to do with building the wall,” Kolfage told NBC.
